Outreach

Claudia Maraston and Daniel Thomas assisted by ICG members Jen Gupta, Emma Beynon, David Wilkinson and Edd Edmondson, have launched a new educational outreach activity for local primary schools. This programme called "A Visit from Space" will bring scientists into the classroom, making it easier for schools to access the resources and expertise of the ICG, and consists of a full morning of space activities for key stage 2 children (years 3-6). It starts with a lecture on astronomy, followed by interactive activities, such as inflatable planets, Galaxy Zoo and the thermal camera.

Around 50 A-level students from Portsmouth and beyond visited the University of Portsmouth yesterday (20 June) to attend the 2013 Cosmology Masterclass hosted by the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation.

Benjamin Taylor, a year-9 student at Chichester high school for boys, was on placement at the ICG the whole half-term week and was very busy with several different projects. He learnt about Galaxy Zoo, he visited the Sciama supercomputer (see picture, with PhD students David Wilkinson and Claire Le Cras), he discussed science and started to read professional articles. Finally, he was engaged in creating a power point presentation where he listed all questions a young student has on Cosmology and Astrophysics. He was assisted by PhD student David Wilkinson and Dr.

Claudia Maraston gave a talk on Saturday, 27 at a meeting of the British Astronomical Society, http://britastro.org/baa/, held at the South Downs Planetarium in Chichester. The meeting hosted 100 attendees spanning a range of professional figures, with a common interest in Astronomy. Maraston explained basics concepts of galaxy evolution and the state-of-art in galaxy studies at ICG.

ICG astronomers held a successful Astronomy in the City event at Gunwharf Quays last night as part of National Science and Engineering Week. About 60 passers-by were able to spot the Moon and Jupiter through gaps in the clouds using a variety of different telescopes, with the help of Emma Beynon, Edd Edmondson, Jen Gupta, Cullan Howlett, Karen Masters, Andreas Papadoupoulos and David Wilkinson.

An internationally renowned particle physicist, Professor John Ellis, a Clerk Maxwell professor at Kings College London, addressed an audience of nearly 200 last week at a University of Portsmouth public lecture about the Large Hadron Collider. He explained the importance the LHC has to the wider physics community and described how discoveries in physics are relevant to the wider community.

World renowned particle physicist, Prof. John Ellis is visiting the ICG on 15th November 2012 to give a research seminar. During his visit he has kindly agreed to also give an evening public lecture as part of the Portsmouth University Public Lecture Series.

Yesterday in London was the launch of the first Science Grrl Calendar
Our new ICG Outreach Officer, Dr. Jen Gupta (who recently obtained her PhD studying distant galaxies with supermassive black holes in their centres from the University of Manchester) is featured in the calendar, and attended the opening event in London.